Matt Meyer
Recap
Things quickly begin to fall apart for the Teen Titans as Kid Flash discovers Robin's secret supervillain prison - right under their headquarters! Then, things get even more heated when he discovers Red Arrow's in on it, too.
Tensions - unspoken or otherwise - continue to rise as various interpersonal relationships begin to go from simmering to boiling over: Roundhouse likes Crush but mistakenly believes she's into Robin, leading her outing as gay; Crush decides to make her move on Djinn, who's actually into Robin but maybe realizing Crush is pretty cool too; Red Arrow acts like she can't stand Kid Flash but might actually be into him because of his unwavering moral compass. And while all this is going on, Deathstroke, bound and secured in Robin's secret basement, is inside his head and causing him to act even more rashly than usual.
While that's going on, and the team couldn't possibly be more divided - to make matters worse, Robin's secret prison is finally, inevitably about to explode!
Review
Writer Adam Glass continues to prove, month in and month out, why he’s the best Titans author since Geoff Johns’ heyday: he gets that more than any other superhero team, the Titans are all about the interpersonal relationships. Forget the X-Men, the Titans are where the real soap opera’s at!
But despite the soapiness of this issue’s major plot points, Glass’s Teen Titans continues to ring true because these kids’ problems are so easy to identify with. Even matron figure Red Arrow has a great moment where she takes her mask off this issue, openly admitting that all of her problems stem from her mother (the assassin Shado).
And yet, Glass never forgets that while these subplots are critical hooks for building reader investment in the characters themselves, he has to move the overarching plot forward too, but this is where this issue stumbles just a bit. You almost wouldn’t know this is part of a crossover with Christopher Priest’s top-tier Deathstroke because the issue is so invested in the many subplots that have been slowly building for the last few months. For a regular Teen Titans reader it may feel pretty natural, but for someone foreign to the book coming in cold, it may feel like too much of a detour.
And what about Deathstroke? Slade Wilson isn’t in much of this issue, but his shadow looms over everything. He’s in both Robin and Red Arrow’s heads, and they’re the supposed leaders of this ragtag group. By the end of the issue, the reader is left with the unsettling feeling that Deathstroke must be behind what’s gone on. It couldn’t just be that Robin finally got too cocky for his own good… right?
Final Thoughts
Writer Adam Glass delivers another stellar installment of "The Terminus Agenda" as everything on every level ratchets up. This story is going to blow up the status quo of both Teen Titans and Deathstroke, and it's anyone's guess what either book will look like when the dust settles!
Teen Titans #29: Raging Teenage Hormones, Homicidal Lunatics, and Other Such Marvelous Delights
- Writing - 9.5/109.5/10
- Storyline - 9/109/10
- Art - 7/107/10
- Color - 6/106/10
- Cover Art - 7/107/10
